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HON. PERCY WALKER, OF ALABAMA. 



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CENTRAL AMERICAN AFFAIRS; 



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DEUVERED 



IN TIIK HOUSE nr RKPRESKNT.\T1VCS. DECEMBER IT, 1S56. 









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WASHINGTON: 
PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE 

1856. 



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CENTRAL AMERICA. 



Thp noaaehavlngiinderconsiileration the motion to refer 
and prim tlie President's Message- 
Mr. WALKER said: 

Mr. Speaker: As I said some days ago, when 
1 first obtained the floor, it is not iny purpose to 
follow in the current of debate of the last eight 
or ten days. I have no campaign speeches to 
rehearse. The canvass is over, and the heat and 
«xcitement it produced should cease. 1 would 
eultivate that freedom from prejudice and that 
calmness of thought which are essential to wise 
legislation. 

The election has taken place, and 1 can imagine 
no good to result from a renewed discussion of 
tJhe principles which controlled it, or of the mo- 
tives and conduct of the rival parties. Such a 
■discussion will certainly not affecis the policy of 
the present Administration, and will hardly be 
looked to by the incoming one as affording reli- 
able guides for its action. At this early day it is 
impossible for us to anticipate what is to be the 
result of that election upon the destiny of our i 
country. It may be, sir, that within the next 
four years the winds of sectional hate which have ! 
so fearfully swept over the land may subside, I 
that fanaticism may exhaust itself by its own { 
violence, and that those who have used it for bad j 
purposes may be stranded upon the shores of 
popular contempt, and the country restored to ! 
something like quietness. On the other hand, it j 
niay be that the late election was a mere skirmish j 
in advance of a great sectional fight four years i 
hence, on which the issue will be the life or 
death of the Republic. But be that as it may, 1 | 
for one am prepared to wait the tide of events, 
iu)d shall not, if I can avoid it, contribute to 
party asperity or sectional prejudice. 

In this spirit, therefore, I shall endeavor, as far 
as I can, to lift this House, for a brief season at 
kast, above the turbid pool of party strife, to the 
consideration of questions of common interest to 
us all — North and South, East and West— and 
which, in their importance and magnitude, should 
address themselves to the minds of all thoughtful 
men; for in their solution are involved the great 



interests, presentand future, not only of this coun- 
try, but of the civilized world. I refer to the Cen- 
tral American States, their present condition, and 
our relations with them. 

In his annual message, now ander considera- ' 
tion, the President has called our attention to the 
posture of affairs in Nicaragua, and informs ua 
that he has ceased to hold diplomatic relations 
with that State. It is my purpose to comment, 
at some length, on that portion of the message, 
and therefore I send it to the Clerk's desk to be 
read. 
The Clerk read as follows: • 
" The peculiar condition of affairs in Nicaragua in the 
early part of the present year, rendered it important that 
tliis Government should have diplomatic relations with 
that State. Through its territory had been opened one of 
the principal thoroughfares across: the Isthmus connecting 
North and South America, on which a vast amount of 
properly was transported, and to which our citizens resorted 
in great numbers in passing between tlie Atlantic and 
Pacific coasts of the United States. The protection . of 
both required tliat the existing Power in that State should 
be regarded as a responsible Government ; and its Minister 
was accordingly received. But he remained here only a 
short time. Soon thereafter the political affairs of Nica- 
ragua underwent unfavorable change, and became involved 
in much uncertainty and confusion. Diplomatic repre- 
sentatives from two contending parties have been recenUy 
sent to this Government; but, with the imperfect informa- 
tion possessed, it was not possible to decide which was tbe 
Government de facto; and, awaiting further developments, 
I have refused to receive either." 

Mr. WALKER proceeded: The House will 
recollect that in the month of May last, the Presi- 
dent transmitted to Congress a special message, 
in which he announced the fact that he had ree- 
ogni7.ed the Minister sent hither by what vifaa 
then the Ri vas-Walker Government in Nicaragua. 
In that paper he set forth at large the reasons 
influencing him to that act, averring what is 
doubtless true, that from the foundation of our 
Republic it had been the invariable custom of all 
Administrations to recognize foreign Govern- 
ments., de /acto, without regard to the source of 
their power or the manner of their creation. 

The President then further stated, in addition 
to this general rule, that there were other aad 
special reasons for recogniaung the Governraent 



©f Nicaragua, and opening amicable relations 
with it; that the establishing of such relations 
was necessary to the protection of the persons 
and property of American citizens in that country; 
and that the " interoceanic communication be- 
tween the opposite shores of America " makes 
the maintenance of friendly relations between 
this Government and the Central American States 
a matter 6f high commercial and political im- 
portance. 

Now, sir, let us follow the history of events in 
connection with this subject, and see M'hether 
they justify the discontinuance or stoppage of 
these friendly relations. It is far from my pur- 
;;jse and my, feelings to comment upon the action 
^f the Executive in a captious spirit. I desire to 
stale my views fairlj'-, frankly, and I trust clearly, 
upon this subject. In my opinion, the Govern- 
Bient made a great mistake in the course taken, 
from beginning to end, upon this whole Central 
American question. Before I come to an exam- 
ination of the 'present posture of affairs in that 
Republic, I shall call the attention of the House 
4 for a few moments to the past history of that 
country. 

We know, sir, that from the time that the 
broken, irregular shores of Bonaca first greeted 
the eyes of the adventurous sailor of Castile, at 
the opening of the sixteenth century, all com- 
mercial nations have looked to Central America 
as affording a passage between the two great 
oceans — that pathway, in quest of which so 
many gallant spirits have fallen in the wilderness 
to rise no more. The bold seamen and valiant 
captains of Clueen Elizabeth sought it with the 
fervor of religion — the infatuation of romance, 
through the gorgeous mazes of Central Ameri- 
can forests, where hunger, thirst, and fierce trop- 
ical heats wete the foes that combined with the 
cruel and jealous Spaniards, and their more wily 
and ferocious allies, the Jesuits, armed with the 
power and the terrors of the Inquisition, to guard 
the way. The Gilberts, the Raleighs, the Drakes, 
skilled and dauntless soldiers and sailors, gallant, 
courteous gentlemen, and incomparable scholars, 
every one found his death either directly or indi- 
rectly in the vain pursuit of this same passage, 
that was to open the doors of El Dorado to the 
sons of Old England, and place it the brightest 
jewel in her crown. 

We all know, too, the valued lives', the countless 
treasure which England has dedicated to death 
and destruction in the terrific seas and deserts of 
the North Pole in search of a northern passage. 
Many of her best and bravest sons have perished 
there from the biting cold, or went down beneath 
som« giant iceberg as it moved along in its sullen 
progress. But our old mother England pauses 
MOlat such loss, and, with the lust for commercial 
power, still persists in her endeavors. 

Look at the position of the Central American 
States. Cast your eye over the map, and you 
will find what, to my mind,isamoststrikingand 
wonderful fact, that as you travel south, the con- 
tinent itself seenis, in obedience to some great 
law of nature, gradually to grow smaller and 
smaller, until, as you approach the Central Amer- 
ican States, the waters seem constantly encroach- 
ing upon the main land, until, when you have 
passed the State of Honduras, the waves of one 
ocean admost touch those of the other, as if the 



restless and turbulent Atlantic struggled to clasp 
in marriage the more peaceful western sea, 
I say, that from their very position they have 
been, and must always continue to be, a great 
object of interest, if not of acquisition, to the 
leading Powers of the world. Why, sir, saga- 
cious England saw this long before the birth of 
a Republic on this continent. From the time of 
the discovery by Spain in 1502 — I may say down 
to this very moment, she has never withdrawn 
her eye from that point. As far back as 1642 a 
body of Englishmen, pirates and marauders, in 
the Island of Jamaica, banded themselves together, 
and crossed over, and made an inroad upon the 
possessions of Spain in Central America, It is 
true they were dispossessed afterwards, I think, 
in 1650, by the Vice General, as he was called, of 
Guatemala, but they again and again renewed their 
attempts at different points — at Grasioz a Dia^i, 
on the Mosquito coast, and that part of Guate- 
mala now called the Belize, and always with the 
secret connivance of England. They still made 
successful inroads upon the Spanish provinces; 
and finally, in 1742, they were taken possession 
of formally and avowedly by the British Govern- 
ment. 

At the end of the war that followed, in 1763,, 
Great Britain entered into a treaty with Spain by 
which she at once relinquished all right to any 
portion of Central America, then called Spanish 
America, But, sir, pursuing that policy of bad 
faith which stands out upon all her history, she 
made another descent upon Spanish America; it 
was, however, afterwards regained, and, in 1783', 
another treaty was made, in which she, in moci 
emphatic terms, renounced all sovereignty over 
that soil. In 1786 there w;as still anotlier treatj'. 
in which she, in j^et more emphatic terms, relin- 
quished any such claim. The war of 1796 sus- 
pended the enforcement of these stipulations, and 
in 1814 there was a final treaty entered into be- 
tween Great Britain and Spafn. It is important, 
sir, that we should bear in mind the language of 
that treaty, because it has a direct connection, 
with and throws light upon our controversy with 
England growing out of what is known as the 
Mosquito coast question. In that treaty of 1814 
she not only again recognized the right of Spain 
to all Central America as paramount and superior 
.to her own, (the House will recollect that this 
treaty preceded the independence of Central 
America some nine or ten years,) but in express 
terms pledged herself to " abandon the contnifjit 
and all the islands adjacent thereto." 
■;'. Well, sir, things remained in this state uniiU 
in 1821, the States of Central America, viz: Gna- 
temala, Nicaragua, San Salvador, Flonduras, aiwl 
Costa Rica, proclaimed their independence, re- 
nounced their allegiance to the Crown of Spain, 
and afterwards erected themselves into a sepa- 
rate and independent Republic. But, sir, unfortu- 
nately for the well-being of that infant Republic, 
dissensions soon grew up:^ She lacked a thought- 
ful and enlightened Icadui'f She had not been thor- 
oughly imbued with the true spirit of republican- 
ism. In 1824 these States formed a constitution 
modeled after our own, but the peace that resulted 
from the cooperation of the several Slates and 
their union was but short-lived. After the adop- 
tion of the constitution dissensions speedily man- 
ifested themselves; there were several aspiF&n-te 



for power, and the result was that the Republic 
soon fell to pieces. 

But, sir, before we come to that, let me recall 
the recollection of the House to the fact that, 
before they entered into this formal union, as 
far back, I think, as December 2, 1822, these 
embryo States, apprehensive that they might be 
merged in the larger Republic of Mexico, (which 
had about the same time severed herself from the 
Crown of Spain,) as a means of guarding against 
the efforts of Mexico to absorb them within her 
limits, and thereby rob them of their independent 
existence, passed solemn resolves incorporating 
themselves into the Union of the North American 
States. This project, of course, passed away 
upon the adoption of the Constitution of 1824; 
and, as I have already said, unfortunately there 
appeared various rival leaders, and in the contests 
that followed the life of the Republic was crushed 
out. In 1827, however, it seems that a new ray 
of hope and promise broke over that distracted 
land. In one of their intestine wars, a man, who 
seemed to the patriots to have been born for the 
crisis and the emergency, was lifted above the 
vulgar herd of factious spirits. He was no or- 
dinary man, no mere ambitious soldier who pre- 
sented himself, but a man of laj-ge gifts, who, by 
his wisdom, his caution, the statesmanship he 
evinced, and the purity of his private character 
and life, induced the hope, which died out not 
for many years in that country, that through his 
instrumentality, by his valor, courage, and skill, 
peace might be once more restored to them. That 
man was Morazan, the descendant of a West 
Indian planter, who had married in Honduras. 
With great power he swayed the destinies of 
that country for a number of years; but not even 
his wise policy and prudent counsels could quiet 
tlie discordant elements of that disturbed land, 
and the several States were constantly engaged 
in wars. 

Some ten years after his advent on the stage of 
action, a man of opposite elements came forward, 
of savage instincts, without refinement or culti- 
vation of any sort. Carrera was a fit instrument 
of a crafiy priesthood. He came into notice in 
1837, and from that time to the present must be 
regarded as the evil genius of the entire Central 
American States. A common herdsman — the 
" pig driver of Guatemala," as Squier tells us he 
was called — v/as rude, ignorant, and unpolished, 
of gigantic strength, ferocious passions, indom- 
itable will, and dauntless courage. This man was 
taken up by the priesthood as the instrument of 
crushing Morazan, and thus effecting their pur- 
poses. 

After many a conflict and disaster, now and 
then relieved by victory, Morazan, defeated and ! 
taken prisoner, fell a victim to the vindictive rage j 
of the Carrei-a faction. After his death, but slight , 
obstacles barred Carrera 's way to absolute power; 
and he now stands, not the President of a repub- 
lican government, but the Dictator of Guate- 
mala, the chief State of Central America, and the 
most powerful enemy of the liberal party of 
Nicaragua. 

I have dwelt at some length on the intestine 
troubles of the Central American States; and I 
would now add , that the history of those wars and 
dissensions show throughout the active agency 
and interference of England; and I think I am jus- 



tified in saying that, but for her interference, there 
would have been at least a chance for a Repub-- 
lic of Central American States. Though Great 
Britain had abandoned to Spain all right to any 
portion of Central America, she was so fully 
aware of the advantages a foothold there would 
give her in controlling the commerce of the worlds 
that, notwithstanding her disclaimer in 1814 and 
previously, she was constantly active to secure 
control over those States. To effect that purpose, 
she contributed to keep alive the discord of which 
I have spoken. It is known, and has never been 
denied, that within the past eighteen months she 
has supplied the Costa Ricans with arms and 
munitions, if not with funds, to carry on the war 
against the Government of Nicaragua, whose 
iVIinister was recognized by President Pierce in 
May last. Her attempted Mosquito protectorat* 
was no measure of philanthropy, but a trick re>- 
sorted to to insure to herself the control of a 
transit route. 

I have not the time now to review the history 
of our controversy with England in reference to 
that matter. I can only glance at it. We know 
the terms of the treaty commonly known as the 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty. We remember the dat« 
of its promulgation. We cannot forget the aim 
and purpose of this Government in entering into 
that treaty. It was promulged in July, 1850. 
Yet, not long afterwards, England again asserted 
her rights over the Bay Islands. If gentlemen 
will look at the correspondence between the two 
Governments they will find that England assumed 
the ground that Central America did not have the 
ownership of its islands and dependencies; and 
this in the face of the settled law that discovery 
carries with it the right of sovereignty. Spain 
had originally the sovereignty of Central America 
by reason of her first discovery of that country: 
and when Central America achieved its inde- 
pendence from Spain, as a necessary consequenca 
the right of sovereignly went with it. 

I have mentioned these things to show tha 
great importance of our country having some 
settled policy with reference to Central America. 
We know the character of the population of those 
States.' We know that, though they embrace a 
large geographical area, not much below one mil- 
lion of square miles, they are sparsely populated. 
There are Indians, mixed races, and foreigners, 
who have gone there from time to time, forming 
a most heterogeneous aggregate of inhabitants* 
Now, from the history of the past, I lay down 
this proposition: It is preposterous to suppose 
that a rude, uncivilized, thrice-mixed race can 
ever have control in those latitudes. The ques- 
tion then resolves itself into this: Either that 
country must fall in the future into the grasping 
hands of our great commercial rival, England, 
or it must, in obedience to what I conceive to be 
the laws of nature, become, by geographical posi- 
tion, community of interest, and political sym- 
pathy, our firm ally. At any rate there must bo 
established a separation between Central Amer- 
ica and the great Powers of Europe, so as to 
insure us the rights to which we are entitled. 

1 hope the House will not so far misunderstand 
me as to imagine that 1 am seeking now to incul- 
cate the idea of annexation. Such is not my 
purpose. That if our Government lasts our 
domains will be enlarged , I have no doubt. I am 



6 



not disposed to hurry events. I prefer leavins^ 
them to the regular order of time. But I would 
at least afford encouragement to the efforts now 
making to regenerate theCentral American States. 
I wish to see our Government abandon the policy 
of stretching our neutrality laws beyond their 
proper interpretation. And it seems to me that 
a greater error never has been committed, not 
only by this, but by past Administrations, than 
in the course which has been taken in regard to 
Central America. Why, sir, how do matters 
stand .' 

I have spoken of the controversy between our- 
selves and England on account of their Musquito 
protectorate, and their well-known assumptions of 
right to control the fate of that country. I venture 
the assertion, that although the declaration of 
James Monroe in 1823, that the interest of this 
country required that no foreign Power should be 
allowed to interfere with the affairs of this conti- 
nent, has received theindorsementandapproval of 
every leading statesman, North and South, since 
its promulgation, yet the diplomatic history of this 
Government shov.'s an entire and total disregard 
of that great doctrine. In my judgment, if there 
had been a wiser — and by that I mean a bolder 
and more energetic — foreign policy adopted by 
this Government, at this very hour we should 
have upon our southern border a republic af- 
fording to us, either by railroads across their 
narrow isthmus, or by canals, what we so much 
require and demand. If you take up your tables 
it will be found that it is only across the Central 
American States that the oriental markets are 
really open to us. If you take the distance 
around the Cape of Good Hope, j^ou will find that 
England is one thousand se^en hundred miles 
nearer Canton and Calcutta ihaa is the port of 
New York; while, by a canal across the Isthmus 
of Nicai-agua, the relative position is entirely re- 
versed, and the great fact stands out that there is 
a diminution of three thousand miles in favor of 
the American port. 

The same is true in regard to the trade with the 
western coast of South America and the Sand- 
wich Islands. If any gentleman will take the 
trouble, from these simple data, to calculate, not 
merely the distance in miles, but the time — for that 
becomes important in regard to the discovery 
and application of steam — he will find that it is 
across these Central American States that we can 
only expect to obtain full and complete control of 
our possessions upon the Pacific, and at the same 
time bring t > our own doors the trade of Asia and 
China. England was aware of this, and hence 
(ler unremitting efforts to check our progress to 
commercial greatness. 

Though by the terms of the Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty, England engaged to protect the construc- 
tion of, and to maintain the security of property 
and rights of transit on all railroads, canals, or 
other contracts of communication from Tehuan- 
tepec to Darien, we soon witnessed the subtile 
turnings of British diplomacy. After the United 
States were bound to the position that suited her 
purposes, England managed, before the delivery 
of her ratification, to dispatch a force to seize the 
Roatan Islands, and create them into a British 
colony. These islands belong to Honduras, and 
are so situated at the outlet of the admirable Isth- 
mus transit across that State, that, with them, a 



strong maritime Power could exclude at will our 
trade and travel through that route to the Pacific, 
Competent engineers had examined the route, 
and had reported strongly in favor of the harbors 
at each terminus ; and British policy acted promptly 
on the suggestion. It was an item in her sched- 
ule of. antagonism to American progress to seize 
and keep in her own power the portals of this 
tempting pathway to California. The movement 
was exactly timed. If she had robbed an Amer- 
ican State of these valuable islands before she had 
firmly bound the United States, even our meek 
and much-enduringGovernment might have taken 
the alarm, and rejected the treaty. If she ratified 
it completely before she acted, the proceeding 
would be too barefaced for even English effront- 
ery. Her Minister is therefore directed to inform 
our Government, at the last moment, that the 
treaty " is not to be understood to apply to her 
Britannic Majesty's settlements of Belize and 
its dependencies." This word " dependencies" 
was selected as indefinite enough to cover the 
premeditated plunder of the Roatan Islands 
which she was in the act of perpetrating. These 
islands had never before been called or consid- 
ered British property, or in any way " depend- 
encies" of "the British settlement of the Belize. 
They were usurped and created into a "de- 
pendency" of the Belize, and re-baptized by 
the name of the Colony of the Bay Islands. 
Honduras protested indignantly at this open 
piracy of her territory. She reminded the United 
States of the Monroe doctrine, and proposed thai 
we should accept her as a State of the Union, and 
annex her territory at once, rather than see it 
torn from her piecemeal by England. So stands 
the matter at the end of six years. England 
retains the plunder. Our Government barely 
ventures to whisper a timid dissent; and all 
Europe may well declare, in tones of undisguised 
contempt, that the American Union is, after all, 
but a " noisy braggart, and her doctrine of non- 
encroachment on American soil mere bluster and 
bravado." Yet the question at stake is of incom- 
parable inagnilude. It is, whether England or 
the United States shall have the control of the 
most important pathways, not only of our inter- 
State trade, but of oriental traffic. The gold dis- 
coveries in our extended territories on the Pacific, 
our bold approach to the mastery of Asiatic com- 
merce, and the general revolution in the channels 
of trade which steam and American enterprise are 
turning from its old paths, to lead, by shorter 
routes, across the American Isthmus, startled ^le 
fears of England. She felt her decay was near, 
when she beheld American ships rivaling and 
outstripping hers, in tonnage as well as speed 
and power, on every sea. Her last hope is to 
forestall her vigorous competitor of the West, by 
seizing the gates of our invaluable home avenues 
of commerce, and so retain yet awhile the scepter 
in her own hands. On this idea she acted when 
she laid robber grasji on the Roatan Islands, and, 
in violation of truth, right, and international 
I comity, she took illegal and violent possession 
of the port of San .tuan del Norte, the lawful 
j property of the Republic of Nicaragua 
I Sir, we have been recreant to our republican 
' principles in abandoning the Monroe doctrine 
i whenever and wherever it was attacked by Eu- 
rope, and now the penalty of our dereliction is 



f 



being visited upon us in all directions. We have 
fallen so completely into the habit of non-resist- 
ance to European encroachments, that vi^e are 
almost afraid to oppose them with firmness even 
in the safe warfare of diplomacy. Our apathy, 
if not our timidity, has provoked the aggressions 
growing out of the forced and fraudulent con- 
struction of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. That 
treaty was a snare and a deceit from the begin- 
ning, and only devised to entrap the United 
States into an engagement never to obtain a foot- 
hold on the American Isthmus, while England 
could go on taking all she wanted. When this 
duplicity was made evident by the seizure of the 
Roatan Islands, the treaty should at once have 
been declared forfeited and void, as an instrument 
obtained under false pretenses, and signalized by 
the evasion or denial of all the conditions and 
equivalents which the United States were induced 
by diplomatic artifices to believe it contained. 
Every month that monstrous and suicidal blunder 
remains uncanceled is a lowering, of the dignity 
of our Government — a cause for the impeachment 
of its wisdom — a distrust of its courage. But, sir, 
1 cannot longer dwell upon this branch of the 
subject. The time to which, by the rules of the 
House, I am limited, is nearly gone, and I must 
hasten on. 

It will be remembered that thus far I have not 
spoken in reference to the existing state of things 
in Nicaragua. It is my purpose now to trace, 
briefly, the current of events in that State for the 
last few years, the action of our own Govern- 
ment, and the career of General William Walker. 

I confess frankly that I enter upon this portion 
of my subject in afar less hopeful spirit than that 
which ruled me some days since; because recent 
intelligence places things in Nicaragua upon a 
different footing from what I had hoped. But, 
though at the present time clouds seem to be low- 
ering upo« Walker, yet I am one of those who 
believe in the virtue of the element of self-reliance; 
and if I read him aright, there is that about him 
which marks him for a longer and still more 
brilliant career. 

There is, sir, a terrible power in calumny and 
detraction, which ever treads fast and remorse- 
lessly upon the heels of virtue; and where it can- 
not entirely destroy, disappointment only adds 
new force and power to its hate. There is no 
man in our day who has been more maligned than 
he upon whom, I may now say, the eyes of the 
world are cast. Walker is no vulgar adventurer, 
but a profound observer, an earnest, scholarly 
man, above all mercenary considerations, tem- 
perate, grave, courteous, and habitually silent. 
Secretive and self-reliant, he is not so cautious as 
you would conceive so thoughtful a man to be, 
but hurried on occasionally by the impetuosity of 

feniusj as all the master spirits of the world have 
een. 

A young, bold, adventurous, thoughtful man, 
imbued with the truest spirit of Americanism, 
the keenest instincts of his peculiar nationality, 
the brave, enduring pioneerism of the West and 
South, prompt to the faintest voice of freedom, 
sallies forth to establish a nationality, to which 
he would impart, by his own energy, genius, and 
enthusiasm, the deep love of liberty, industry, 
morality, and it might be prosperity, of his own 
happier land. Inspired by that heroic dream of 



freedom, and a love of glory which has character- 
ized the purest and noblest natures, he, at the 
call of the liberal party, then struggling in Nicar- 
agua, entered that State wTth the small force of 
fifty or sixty men. This was in June, 1855. For 
some months civil war had prevailed, the " ser- 
viles and the liberals" contending for the ascend- 
ency. Chamorro, the leader of the former, and 
Castillion, the leader of the liberals, were candi- 
dates for the Presidency. Chamorro had usurped 
the government, and by superior force had con- 
fined his opponents within narrow limits. At 
this stage Castillion, the representative of liber- 
alism, with the concurrence of Salazar and others, 
invited General Walker, then in California, to 
aid him in the effort to rescue the country from 
the grasp of despotism. He did so; and landing 
at R.ealijo proceeded to Leon, where the liberal 
party was stationed. He obtained reinforcements 
of one hundred and fifty natives, and shortly 
afterwards marched upon the village of Rivas, 
which was defended by the whole force of the 
opposing party. His native allies deserted, and 
with his little band of fifty or sixty he fought 
against some four or five hundred. He was not 
successful in defeating the rival forces; but he 
gave the most signal and never-to-be-forgotten 
evidence of his prowess as a soldier. Afterwards 
he defeated the enemy at La Virgin. 

In a short time the whole aspect of affairs was 
changed. Such was the impulse given the liberal 
party by this small force, that it soon became 
evident that full and complete success would 
crown their efforts. Chamorro and Castillion 
had died. Walker headed the liberal party, and 
General Corrall commanded the Chamorro fac- 
tion. 

On the 23d of October, 1855, Walker and Cor- 
rall entered into a treaty at Granada. As a com- 
promise, the treaty declared Patricio Rivas, who 
had been connected with the Chamorro party, 
but who had taken no active part in the contro- 
versy. Provincial President for fourteen months 
unless he should decree an election before the 
expiration of that time. This mam Rivas was 
at the time collector at the port of San Carlos, at 
the head of the San Juan river, and although he 
held that post under Chamorro, yet, in the hope of 
restoring peace and quiet. Walker consented that 
he should occupy the highest place in power, and 
he was accordingly proclaimed President of the 
Republic. Rivas afterwards issued a decree for 
an election of President by the people; but before 
it took place, he and Corrall left the capital and 
set to work to overthrow the Government. A 
short time after entering into the treaty, Corrall 
was detected in treasonable correspondence, and 
was shot, as he deserved to be, by Walker's orders. 
Walker was elected President by the people. 

Before the breach between Rivas and Walker 
occurred, to wit: in November, 1855, the new 
Government was recognized by our Minister, 
Mr. Wheeler; and in May last our Government 
received Padre Vigil, the representative of the 
Rivas- Walker Goveniment. It is known that at 
that time there were protests made against this 
recognition. But from whom did these protests 
come .' Not from any party claiming to be the 
ruling power in the State of Nicaragua, but from 
some of the other and hostile States of Central 
America. Mr. Josaari, who, if I mistake not, 



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8 



is the Minister from Guatemala, and who also 
claims to be the present representative of Rivas, 
protested, a few months ago, against the recog- 
nition of Padre Vigil,' and in his protest alleged 
that " there is not either in the United States, or 
any part of the world, any body who is not aware 
that Senior Rivas, who styles himself as Pres- 
ide/it of Nicaragua, is nothing but a creature of 
Walker — the complacent slave to the ruler of his 
country." 

And yet this denunciator of Rivas comes now, 
if I have not been misinformed, and claims to be 
the Minister to our Government from Rivas. 

In his annual message to this session, the Pres- 
ident employs language which by many is re- 
garded as a statement that diplomatic relations 
with Nicaragua ceased with the departure of the 
Padre Vigil from this country. If this be so, a 
large portion of the public has been misled. It 
has been publicly declared that the Government 
held official communication with Mr. Heiss, who 
was left in charge by the Padre. Walker was 
elected President on the 13th of July, 1856, and 
on the 19th of the same month was recognized 
by our Minister at Nicaragua. Since then, as 
declared in the public journals, our State Depart- 
raent has had negotiations with the Walker Gov- 
ernment for the discharge of American soldiers, 
and also in reference to what is known as the 
" privateering" proposition. 

Sir, it may have been wise in the President to 
refuse to continue intercourse with Walker's 
Government; but it seems to me that the mere 
fact that this man's fortunes seem momentarily 
under a cloud should not weigh against the well- 
established fact that he is at the head of the only 
party constitutionally authorized to rule in Nica-r- 
agua. He represents not only the liberal party 
in that State — those in favorof legitimate govern- 
ment— but, what is greatly important to us, he 
is the type and representative of our own n.ation- 
aUty. And, in addition to this, the struggle now 
going on in Nicaragua is not between the people 
of that Stete and Walker as an invader, but 
between Wcdker, the duly-elected President, and 
an iavading army from the hostile States of 
Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, and Costa 
Rica, whose object is not merely to crush him, 
but to exterminate all the Americans who have 
selected Nicaragua as their home. 

The recognition in May last met with my 
approval, and I regret exceedingly our Govern- 



ment has thought proper to change its policy. 
The reasons urged for the change are, in my 
judgment, insufficient. After the recognition in 
May, our political and commercial interests re- 
quired that our Govern,ment should have afforded 
every encouragement to the new one in Nicara- 
gua. Cordiality on our part would have gone far 
to have insured to it permanency and stability. 
If the United States had acknowledged the Rivas- 
Walker Government immediately upon it is form- 
ation, in all probability peace and order would 
have been maintained; the election for President 
there would have passed off quietly, and Walker 
might now be the head of a Government v/hose 
course he would shape after our own, and whose 
destinies he would endeavor to link with those of 
this Union — not by the absorption of Nicaragua 
into our Confederacy, but, in a just estimate of 
the value of geographical relations, mindful of the 
value of republican principles, and true to his 
American instincts, would aid us in our reach 
after commercial sway. 

Our clock tells me that my time is nearly out, 
and 1 cannot speak fully upon this subject. 
I have been much hurried, and have perhaps 
achieved nothing more than to call the attention 
of the House and the covintry to matters of great 
moment to us — matters demanding the calm ex- 
amination of all thoughtful men in this country. 
If we are to afford no countenance or encourage- 
ment to the efforts being made there to establish a 
Government in Central America, based upon the 
principles of our own, it seems to me, sir, the 
day will come when, in spite of ourselves, the 
whole power and control of that country will not 
onl}'- pass from our hands but will go into the 
hands of those whose interests are antagonistic 
to our own. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I beg to assure the House 
that, in broaching this subject and advocating 
the claims of President Walker to your respect 
and confidence, I am in no wise influenced by hia 
late decree authorizing slavery in Nicaragua;for, 
sir, however convinced I may be of the inevitable 
destiny of the negro to a condition of servitude, 
and of the adaptation of the soil of Central Amer- 
ica to slave labor, I am willing to leave it to the 
laws of nature, to be governed by climate and 
soil, and the "eternal fitness of things." At 
any rate, my advocacy of a change in our policy 
towards those Central American States has been 
in no wise influenced by that decree. 



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